UFC 185 - LW Championship - Pettis v Dos Anjos

[bkozican]

March 14, 2015 | American Airlines Center | Dallas, Texas
MAIN CARD
Anthony Pettis vs. Rafael dos Anjos - Lightweight title
Carla Esparza vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk - Strawweight title
Matt Brown vs. Johny Hendricks
Roy Nelson vs. Alistair Overeem
Chris Cariaso vs. Henry Cejudo

PRELIMINARY CARD
Ross Pearson vs. Sam Stout
Roger Narvaez vs. Elias Theodorou
Daron Cruickshank vs. Beneil Dariush
Josh Copeland vs. Jared Rosholt

PRELIMINARY CARD
Ryan Benoit vs. Sergio Pettis
Joseph Duffey vs. Jake Lindsey
Germaine de Randamie vs. Larissa Pacheco

Personally think Dos Anjos can KO Pettis as he did Bendo. Dont know anything about the Strawweights so that should be a fun fight to watch. Matt Brown has the chance to set back the Hendricks train as does Roy Nelson...Imagine Overeem getting KO'd by big country.

 

[Jab]

March 14, 2015 | American Airlines Center | Dallas, Texas
MAIN CARD
Anthony Pettis vs. Rafael dos Anjos - Lightweight title
Carla Esparza vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk - Strawweight title
Matt Brown vs. Johny Hendricks
Roy Nelson vs. Alistair Overeem
Chris Cariaso vs. Henry Cejudo

PRELIMINARY CARD
Ross Pearson vs. Sam Stout
Roger Narvaez vs. Elias Theodorou
Daron Cruickshank vs. Beneil Dariush
Josh Copeland vs. Jared Rosholt

PRELIMINARY CARD
Ryan Benoit vs. Sergio Pettis
Joseph Duffey vs. Jake Lindsey
Germaine de Randamie vs. Larissa Pacheco

Personally think Dos Anjos can KO Pettis as he did Bendo. Dont know anything about the Strawweights so that should be a fun fight to watch. Matt Brown has the chance to set back the Hendricks train as does Roy Nelson...Imagine Overeem getting KO'd by big country.

RDS does have the ability to KO anyone in the 155 division, but Pettis will probably be too quick on his feet and move out of the way of the power punches. I want Pettis vs Cerrone again.

The first defence of the straw weight title will be fun to watch, but most won't give this too much time. If it wasn't for the title it might be on the undercard. No disrespect to the fighters, the division is just new and they're not well known at the moment.

I hope that Brown, Nelson and Pearson win, and I'm also hoping that Sergio can add to the Pettis clean sweep of the night.

 

[WA ROO]

I want Pettis vs Cerrone again.

Same here

Would also like to see Big Country drop Overeem

 

[BradWCE]

I think Pettis would wipe the floor with Cerrone again. A Khabib fight with Pettis would be far more interesting and I expect it'll happen. I think Pettis wins this fight against dos Anjos and Khabib beats Cerrone setting up that bout.

The Esparza/Joanna fight is really interesting. Esparza's wrestling is really good and Joanna's a really good striker. I suspect Esparza's wrestling will most likely be the difference in the fight but I'm hoping Joanna wins. For all the talk about Holm's striking, I think Joanna is clearly a better striker. I've said before that I think the 115 division is far better than the women's 135 division. Joanna hurts fighters badly with her punches. Rosi Sexton got destroyed over 3 rounds by Andrade at 135 in the UFC, then got hurt multiple times and eventually finished by Joanna in her next fight. Joanna had Gadelha badly hurt in her most recent fight and went on to win a decision. At the time I thought the decision was probably wrong but on rewatch I think it was completely fine.

A lot of the other fights are interesting too. Main card is really good. Some of the prelims are good too. Duffey beat McGregor and is only getting his chance in the UFC now, which is pretty weird.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

I think Pettis would wipe the floor with Cerrone again. A Khabib fight with Pettis would be far more interesting and I expect it'll happen. I think Pettis wins this fight against dos Anjos and Khabib beats Cerrone setting up that bout.

The Esparza/Joanna fight is really interesting. Esparza's wrestling is really good and Joanna's a really good striker. I suspect Esparza's wrestling will most likely be the difference in the fight but I'm hoping Joanna wins. For all the talk about Holm's striking, I think Joanna is clearly a better striker. I've said before that I think the 115 division is far better than the women's 135 division. Joanna hurts fighters badly with her punches. Rosi Sexton got destroyed over 3 rounds by Andrade at 135 in the UFC, then got hurt multiple times and eventually finished by Joanna in her next fight. Joanna had Gadelha badly hurt in her most recent fight and went on to win a decision. At the time I thought the decision was probably wrong but on rewatch I think it was completely fine.

A lot of the other fights are interesting too. Main card is really good. Some of the prelims are good too. Duffey beat McGregor and is only getting his chance in the UFC now, which is pretty weird.

Duffy had a shot on TUF 12 and lost in the fight to get in to the house to Kyle Watson who most will only remember for being part of this highlight:

He also pursued a pro boxing career I believe and has only recently come back to MMA. I'm interested to see how he does in the big show.

I'm in no real rush to see Cerrone/Pettis again either. It was pretty one sided and I don't see any way that Donald can turn that around... Pettis just seems better than him everywhere. I also think that Khabib de-rails his chances later this year and fights Pettis, potentially in Melbourne which would be awesome.

I'm really hoping Joanna wins against Esparza too, but think Carla wrestles her to a dull decision.

I think the hardest fight to pick on the card is Nelson/Overeem personally. I could see Overeem dominating Roy on the feet or grappling him to a decision, but I can just as easily see Roy landing one of his patented haymakers and turning out the lights early.

 

[BradWCE]

Link in the first post has it written as Duffey (as that's what mmajunkie has it as for some reason), but it's actually Duffy as GT wrote it.

Yeah my mistake. Got his chance on TUF, then the break from MMA to go to boxing was when McGregor got signed and Duffy also lost his last bout before going to boxing. Not weird at all after looking at it.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Dariush looked slick as. Could be a contender.

 

[bkozican]

Ross pearson with a sweet ko. The next 4 fights should be great viewing.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Nelson being a ******* moron, hurt him twice and goes for a takedown each time.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Well that was also s**t. Card on paper looked a lot better than it's delivered.

 

[JordanWCE]

Did I just see CM Punk?

 

[bkozican]

What a round from RDA!!

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Damn that was a domination, very impressive.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Surely kids shouldn't be allowed at these events. Should be over 18's.

 

[Damon_3388]

Both champions got dominated. Quite surprising.

 

[Damon_3388]

Surely kids shouldn't be allowed at these events. Should be over 18's.

Parents gonna parent.

 

[brendan84]

Dos Anjos way too strong, god damn.

 

[Sharks On A Plane]

Well that escalated quickly.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Parents gonna parent.

Should start implementing breeding licences...

 

[Shaxx Attaxx]

Nelson being a ******* moron, hurt him twice and goes for a takedown each time.

Wow you just can't be confident in Overeem's chin. He destroyed Nelson but in the back of my head I'm thinking he can still lose this. He nearly did! Also Reem seemed to of gotten away with some times with his hands stupidly down.

Nelson's toughness is absolutely ridiculous. For someone to stand up to those knees and the constant assault on his legs and body is amazing.

Big Country = tough campaigner

Edit:

He's had worse.

 

[phantom13]

Take nothing away from Joanna but something seemed wrong with Esparza, tough weight cut or something but she looked flat, scared and just out of place in the octagon even before the fight started. RDA was a beast.

 

[Nickos66]

Take nothing away from Joanna but something seemed wrong with Esparza, tough weight cut or something but she looked flat, scared and just out of place in the octagon even before the fight started. RDA was a beast.

Have 3 TD's stuffed convincingly?... Aaah *.. i'm out.

Great card, good to see 2 new champs with more well rounded games prevail today. Joanna & Macgyver looked like monsters out there!

 

[BradWCE]

Jedrzejczyk (wow, I've learnt how to spell it) was quickly becoming one of my favourite fighters before yesterday. She said soon you'll be calling her 'Joanna Champion' instead of needing to pronounce her last name and she was right. I'm annoyed that I didn't have the courage to pick her to win.

Now she's definitely one of my favourite fighters. Esparza was doing alright up until she got blasted with that weird elbow about half way through the 1st round (at 1st I thought it was a standing hammer fist). From then on she realised she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the striking and spammed takedowns because of it. She'd have been better off setting up her takedowns with strikes but Joanna Champion had her rattled. I think Joanna Champion got inside her head prior to the fights as well.

This was a fight where it wasn't evident before but now it is, that the new champion is way better than the previous champion. It was like Jones destroying Shogun or Anderson destroying Franklin. There's no way Esparza comes back to win the belt from Jedrzejczyk. JJ hasn't been fighting MMA for 3 years yet and her takedown defence is ridiculously good, it's just technically perfect despite having no wrestling background. It's all revisionist now but she had trouble stopping Gadelha's takedowns because she got muscled into the fence and taken down from there. Esparza wasn't going to do that, or wasn't going to do that as well as Gadelha. She was shooting out in the open where JJ defends takedowns very well.

RDA's demolition of Pettis was equally as impressive. The crazy thing is I could see Pettis beating him if they fought again. RDA's game plan was perfect, but more importantly he implemented it to perfection. One mistake and Pettis catches you and it's all over. I was late to acknowledge how good Pettis is. After the Lauzon and Cerrone fights I wasn't a believer, but then the Henderson fight changed that and the Melendez fight solidified how good he is. I don't know if this fight shows he's not as good as we thought or just that RDA (who started 0-2 and was later 4-4 in the UFC) is that damn good or a bit of both. Whichever it is, RDA has become very good and showed it yesterday.

One thing that boxing is way better than MMA in is corner's protecting fighters. Weeks ago there was Ruan Potts saying he was done between rounds and his corner made him go back out to fight and then this card there was Pettis saying he couldn't see out of his eye before round 5. Duke says 'I know' and then sends him back out there. Not the first time a Roufusport corner have let down their fighter. There was that kickboxing bout where the guy died, I don't think Duke was cornering but there was a guy who was on TUF with Duke that was cornering that night.

Minor commentary things. Rogan said Rosholt has big power in his hands. Since when? Pronouncing Joanna's last name incorrectly is understandable but Rogan doesn't even pronounce her first name correctly most of the time. He adds a h sound and says Yohanna for some reason. Rogan's standards for an educated crowd are really low. RDA was very clearly going for a kimura and then when Pettis escapes Rogan mentions how educated the crowd is.

 

[BradWCE]

 

[Crimson Azure]

Well that escalated quickly.

My sentiments ts exactly.